When the Seattle Sounders practiced for the first time as an MLS franchise in 2009, I was there. A little more than three years later, who could have foreseen that I would be standing in a cold rain Monday morning watching USL Pro expansion franchise Phoenix FC practice for the first time in their existence?

For a time it took me back to my Seattle days, the 20 players jogging and doing fitness drills on grass near the Arizona State football practice facility in the rain. Lots of communication during 7-on-7. A goal was scored and someone shouted “First goal in Phoenix FC history!”

Day 1 featured a morning practice and an afternoon session and on Valentine’s Day, the club is scheduled for a 5 p.m. scrimmage at Reach 11 Sports Complex. The 20 included a number of trialists but featured former Scottish Premier League striker Darren Mackie, the club’s first signing, and former MLS goalkeeper Andrew Weber, who played for the Seattle Sounders last season. Weber and his brother Elliot, a defender, are with the team.

I’m three years into my move to Arizona and we now have a pro soccer team to follow. There’s much to be worked out logistically — this isn’t the seemingly seamless transition from USL First Division to MLS that the Sounders, Timbers and Whitecaps made. But everything feels more right than uneasy. It’s all so new still, but training camp has opened and the first game of the season is March 30 at Arizona State’s soccer stadium.

By the time that day arrives, Phoenix FC will have its 26-man active and travel roster set. The seating from the recently-completed Waste Management Open golf tournament will have been transported and installed to make the ASU soccer stadium bigger.

And Arizona now has two active pro soccer clubs. FC Tucson thrives to the south and Phoenix FC hopes to draw crowds of its own.

Mackie figures to be the team captain. His teammates seemed somewhat awed to be on the pitch with a guy with major European experience. Mackie seems to understand that he is there to mentor players as much as be a scorer. Here he is talking about his first practice, only days removed since he and his family arrived from Scotland.

Robertson said he’d like to have as close to 26 players as he can going into the season, and perhaps a bit more he can select from if needed.

“I do want us to play attacking soccer,” Robertson said. “The formation will go from game to game depending on the opponents we play.”

“I just want them to play attractive soccer so that people will come and watch,” Robertson added.

Defender Jose Ramos, like other teammates, is thrilled to play for a team in his hometown.

“For the young kids, too, that are barely starting… this is going to be a good opportunity for them, too,” Ramos said.

The Webers were excited to be back on the same pitch together for the first time in years. Andrew said that he’s glad to see an actual team in the Phoenix area after so much talk in years past about the formation of other teams that didn’t pan out.

And poor Humberto Soriano. The goalkeeper came out of the locker room to change his shoes and got stuck being interviewed by myself, Odeen Domingo of the Arizona Republic and Ed Cole of ProstoPreps.com. He was happy to be on the team, but freezing and shivering in the cold. After a couple of minutes we stopped so he could go inside and get warm.

People out here don’t do rain well. Nevertheless, it was an historic day for soccer in Arizona and I was there to document it.

The loyalty of Sounders FC fans is a beautiful thing. They turn out game after game, season after season, the love for their boys undying.

Yet I wonder how many of them are content with early-round playoff exits. With U.S. Open Cups — nice, but not the ultimate prize. With frustrating losses every now and then to teams the club should beat.

I’m long removed from the day-to-day news and observing of the club. Three playoff appearances in the first three years of existence is impressive — a lot of teams would take that in a heartbeat. But I sense that Sounders fans expect more, demand more. And they should.

I do think the Sounders beat themselves, aside from a defense that has not played well of late. That Fredy Montero was sent off in the Portland game was confounding. Your best striker pushing off — even if the Timbers’ David Horst flopped — and costing himself and his team with a suspension, at a time when the Sounders need to get back on the winning track. The Sounders have to do a better job of managing their emotions through this recent winless streak.

There were some needless, senseless fouls from both teams, Portland and Seattle. But my sense is that the Timbers, with less talent, were fine with turning the game into a physical tussle. The Sounders aren’t that kind of team overall, and really never have been.

Having said all that, Sounders fans, you still have a playoff team. The organization has made some fantastic calls with player personnel. There’s a ton of depth and Adrian Hanauer, Chris Henderson and Sigi Schmid reload with fresh talent each year. Some of that talent is guys who might not have gotten their chance as rookies or younger players — they have had to learn to be patient and wait their turn.

It’s a testament to the club that they are able to stockpile developing players. Seattle is an ultimate soccer destination for any professional player, it’s hard to leave once you get there. Ask Mike Fucito, Lamar Neagle, Sebastien Le Toux and James Riley.

Enough opinion. Let’s watch some videos.

Here’s a rainy night in Portland (Timbers-Whitecaps) last month.

Here is the Southsiders supporters group in song in Portland. What a season so far for Vancouver, congrats to them.

I couldn’t put down my phone. Every chance I got, I read the words on the screen, trying to form a mental picture of the places the author mentioned and described in the book, places I know I must have seen from high viewpoints across the border from Juarez in El Paso, Texas. Safe and sound on the American side.

To have read this book — a personal account about the now-defunct Indios de Juarez Mexican professional soccer team and its players, personalities and the incredibly difficult things the Indios and their supporters had to deal with living in Juarez on a daily basis — and been in El Paso just a few weeks ago looking right at Juarez every day was almost unexplainable.

Visiting El Paso and being within a few steps of Juarez and the border made quite an impact on me, and I felt that impact again as I read this book.

I’d heard of Powell’s book before I went to West Texas, and I think there was a part of me that really wanted to walk over one of the bridges and set foot in Juarez just to say I did.

Pedestrian tunnel-like walkway between Mexico and the USA, from American side.

Probably better that I didn’t. I didn’t bring my passport, one, and everyone in El Paso that I talked about Juarez with told me to avoid it. I didn’t question their reasoning.

Vancouver Whitecaps forward Omar Salgado, before he was drafted into Major League Soccer, is a proud borderland native from El Paso who would cross the border to see every Indios match, he told me recently.

“My dad had season tickets and my best friend is the owner of S-Mart, which (was) their biggest sponsor,” Salgado said. S-Mart is mentioned in the book as both a place of business and a team kit sponsor.

“It was a team that I really loved and it was unfortunate the way it ended,” Salgado said.

Not sure if I have ever tried Old El Paso salsa but I remember those old TV commercials about “tasting the old Southwest.” Guess that means I’m getting older.

Well, I finally went to the real El Paso earlier this month. The vast majority of my 5.5 days in the West Texas town were spent at the Dow Jones Multimedia Training Academy, getting out of my comfort zone of writing and learning about other forms of storytelling — audio, video, slideshows. There was a lot to learn.

That’s a good thing. With Major League Soccer teams’ presence prevalent here year after year, playing a match in a big stadium for a crowd of thousands is good for everybody. I have to applaud the Red Bulls for being part of it and credit the Mexican Soccer Federation for agreeing to send a team up from Mexico to be an opponent.

Everyone wins here, save perhaps organizers of the game, who probably lost money this year with a smaller crowd than last year’s Reto del Sol. The Red Bulls get an extra game for their top players to mesh and build off of heading into the MLS season. Pumas UNAM, last night’s other participant, gets to increase its profile and exposure and pay homage to its fans in the U.S., even if they had to fly in from Mexico City for the match and head back out right after.

Mexican teams rule here in Phoenix. The broadcast TV ratings are always higher for Primera Division matches on Spanish-language TV stations than even U.S. national team matches aired on the same day on ESPN. People with close ties to Mexico are loyal to their Mexican clubs. Pumas. Chivas. America. Cruz Azul. Atlas, etc. Those jerseys were spotted in the crowd of 14,597 at a baseball stadium, Chase Field, for Thursday’s match.

The Red Bulls had much less audible support, even though theirs was the only merchandise being sold t the game. That said, defender Rafael Marquez is a celebrity in Mexico and his presence had some Mexican fans wearing his Red Bulls kit.

On the other hand, my gut feeling tells me Seattle paid too high a price for forward Eddie Johnson’s rights. Giving up two talents with the potential of Neagle and Mike Fucito couldn’t have been easy. They both have a lot of upside, while Johnson will have to prove himself worthy of the fans’ loyalty.

I got a chance to catch up with Neagle a couple of weeks ago when the Sounders were in Arizona for training. Here’s highlights of our mostly light-hearted conversation:

On why he kept No. 27 and didn’t take a different jersey number:

“That first year, they (family members) bought jerseys. I was going to change it, yeah. I ordered like 60 or something like that jerseys.”

Photo courtesy of Rick Morrison

On from where he was as a developmental to where he is now:

“It’s been pretty crazy the last couple of years. Been away, came back and actually started playing. Couldn’t ask for more really.”

What precipitated all of that?

“Just getting comfortable. Just realizing I could play. I think going down to Charleston was good for me because when I first came here, the pace was too fast… once I went to Charleston and had success there, it was kind of a step in between. It made it a lot easier. It built my confidence and made me more comfortable on the field. Coming in and knowing all the guys already makes it a lot easier as well.” Read the rest of this entry »